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Karnataka Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi on Thursday, October 29, defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, saying the exercise was conducted properly because of the Congress’s protests and training. His remarks come amid concerns raised by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president BK Hariprasad over discrepancies and deletions in the electoral rolls, even as the Congress prepares to protest against SIR in Delhi on November 1.
“The SIR in Karnataka was done right because of our protests and training. Our argument is that SIR should have happened in the same manner in other states,” Jarkiholi said, according to TOI.
Jarkiholi also said the Congress’s objections to SIR were directed at the manner in which the exercise was conducted in other states, including West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar, rather than the process followed in Karnataka. He maintained that the deletion of entries in Karnataka was justified because they belonged to people who had died, shifted residence or were registered more than once.
His defence, however, comes against the backdrop of sustained objections from Hariprasad, who has questioned the transparency and accuracy of the revision process in Karnataka itself.
In an October 1 report by The New Indian Express, Hariprasad had alleged that the exercise was leaving eligible voters out of the electoral rolls. He claimed that around 1.7 crore names had been left out during the revision and questioned the issuance of notices to 43 lakh people. These were figures cited by Hariprasad during the revision, before the final electoral roll was published.
On September 19, Hariprasad had also written to the Chief Electoral Officer, flagging alleged discrepancies in the data relating to absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and other voters, categorised as ASDDO. He said the figures did not correspond with the deletions recorded from the 2025 electoral rolls in several Assembly constituencies, and demanded constituency-wise reconciliation.
He said the variations raised concerns about the transparency, consistency and auditability of the exercise. He sought explanations from election authorities before the process moved forward.
On October 29, Hariprasad said the Congress had records of the number of names deleted from each polling booth and would work to restore eligible voters to the rolls. “I am visiting all districts and taluks. We will undertake the task of adding voters’ names back to the electoral rolls using Form 6,” he said.
His remarks indicate that, while Jarkiholi has defended the conduct of the exercise in Karnataka, Hariprasad continues to focus on ensuring that eligible voters whose names have been excluded can be reinstated.
The Election Commission published Karnataka’s final electoral roll on Tuesday, October 27, showing 4,55,00,011 electors, compared with 5,54,32,314 before the revision. The net reduction was 99.32 lakh voters. The final roll includes 2,25,40,493 male voters, 2,29,12,355 female voters and 2,841 voters registered under the third-gender category. More than 6.83 lakh electors are aged between 18 and 19.
According to the Election Commission’s data, the draft roll published on August 24 had excluded more than 1.08 crore names. These entries were classified under categories covering voters who were absent, had shifted residence, were deceased, had duplicate registrations or fell under other categories.
The largest group comprised 65.45 lakh voters recorded as having permanently shifted residence. Another 19 lakh were marked absent, 16.39 lakh were recorded as deceased and approximately 7.09 lakh were classified as duplicate entries.
During the claims and objections period, 10.08 lakh electors were added, 1.88 lakh names were deleted and 8.96 lakh entries were modified. The final roll therefore reflects changes made during the verification and claims process, rather than simply reproducing the draft list.
The Election Commission has maintained that the revision was intended to update electoral rolls and remove ineligible entries.
The controversy has also drawn criticism from SIR-Virodhi Karnataka, a coalition opposing the exercise. On Wednesday, October 28, the coalition urged the Karnataka government to reject the final electoral roll and conduct a social audit, public hearings and public scrutiny of the revision process.
The wider dispute has become part of the Congress’s national campaign against alleged irregularities in SIR. The INDIA bloc is scheduled to hold a protest in Delhi on November 1, with the party arguing that electoral roll revisions must not exclude eligible voters.
